Biogeographic Patterns of Structural Traits and C:N:P Stoichiometry of Tree Twigs in China’s Forests

There have been a number of studies on biogeographic patterns of plant leaf functional traits; however, the variations in traits of other plant organs such as twigs are rarely investigated. In this study, we sampled current-year twigs of 335 tree species from 12 forest sites across a latitudinal span of 32 degrees in China, and measured twig specific density (TSD), twig dry matter content (TDMC), and carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) contents, to explore the latitudinal and environmental patterns of these twig traits. The overall mean of TSD and TDMC was 0.37 g cm−3 and 41%, respectively; mean twig C, N and P was 472 mg g−1, 9.8 mg g−1 and 1.15 mg g−1, respectively, and mean N:P mass ratio was 10.6. TSD was positively correlated with TDMC which was positively associated with twig C but negatively with twig N and P. There were no significant differences in TSD between conifer, deciduous-broadleaf and evergreen-broadleaf plants, but evergreen-broadleaf plants had the lowest and conifers the highest TDMC. Conifer twigs were lowest in C, N, P and N:P, whereas deciduous-plant twigs were highest in N and P and evergreen-plant twigs were highest in C and N:P. As latitude increased or temperature/precipitation dropped, TDMC and P increased, but N:P ratio decreased. Our results also showed that the patterns of twig P and N:P stoichiometry were consistent with those reported for leaves, but no significant trends in twig N were observed along the gradient of latitude, climate and soils. This study provides the first large-scale patterns of the twig traits and will improve our understanding of the biogeochemistry of carbon and other key nutrients in forest ecosystems.